Comments for Inventing Time

Comment on Elephant Stacking Time by GersonK

GersonK — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 21:39:16 +0000

I did fly past this point with aid of a magic feather. But we’d expect the elephant slurry to be as dense as an elephant, so we should get an equal mass of solid elephant above and below the liquefaction line. If we sink half the mass that would be above Kármán line with “unsinkable” elephants, then we’re still at 125,000 g above it. At the end of the stacking process, I still suspect the pressure at the limits of the atmosphere is more than enough to make Babar Jamba Juice.

Comment on Elephant Stacking Time by screaming_fist

screaming_fist — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 06:30:34 +0000

Another things that occurred to me is if the bottom elephants are liquefying, then the column will be dynamically getting shorter, until such time the weight is not strong enough to liquefy the elephants. Then maybe you need to compute the equivalent column height to pull 35 g’s to derive how many surviving elephants there would be. Maybe the resulting column height will be within breathing altitudes.

Comment on Elephant Stacking Time by GersonK

GersonK — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 15:34:46 +0000

If we allow artificial assistance in the form of breathing apparatus and, of course, pachyderm precise pressure suits, then it’s just about a given that at the very least, the top elephant would survive. So, I have to assume the original theorem was not meant to be applied to such a case. But you do raise an interesting conundrum – without the pressure suits, are we even able to test the theorem of what happens we lay them end to end, or will we end up just scattering elephant parts across the vacuum as the fully depressurized stackees burst? Or is elephant decompression less violent than we might assume? While we may be forced to allow pressure suits to test the hypothesis, adding air tanks too would seem to invalidate the test. So, what we really need to know how long an elephant can hold its breath.

Comment on Elephant Stacking Time by screaming_fist

screaming_fist — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 05:24:13 +0000

So, if we assume incompressible elephants (and who doesn’t) and maybe a maximum of 35 g’s for an elephant to stay alive (actually, the max a human is estimated to be able to take), I’m getting a column height h of 1,107.8 km, or about 48 elephants from the top (using 35*We in your WA(h) formula and solving for h). Maybe this could if the elephant can hold its breath long enough, or packed breathing apparatus in its, ahem, trunk.
Don’t know if this is a valid approach (or correctly calculated, for that matter), but it might hold its own against the liquified elephants method.

Comment on Elephant Stacking Time by GersonK

GersonK — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 12:43:33 +0000

A rouge 44DD snaps a tether and kills a coolie?

Comment on Elephant Stacking Time by GotMilk

GotMilk — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 06:28:24 +0000

The last time *I* did some “mild algebra”, I was rearranging a rogue strap. These 44DD’s have a mind of their *own*.

Comment on Elephant Stacking Time by Tommys_Dad

Tommys_Dad — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 02:23:03 +0000

Wrong. It’s turtles, all the way down.

Comment on We’re Back Up, In Case You Couldn’t Guess by UpSky2

UpSky2 — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 03:37:06 +0000

Just thought I’d say, thanks for keeping it up all these years.

Too bad Wasting Precious Time is dead. It had its moments of false glory and interest.

Comment on Cap the Cappers at Cinematic Titanic and the BotCave by GersonK

GersonK — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:04:08 +0000

Ummmm – splunge? There’s at least one member of our group who hasn’t posted all their pics, so maybe a second run through when those arrive.

Comment on Cap the Cappers at Cinematic Titanic and the BotCave by UpSky2

UpSky2 — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:15:04 +0000

I missed seeing/capping them… I have more time now. Are they ever going to be re-shown? Can I request another showing of them?